Immunotherapy relies on harnessing the immune system’s anti-tumor activity to eradicate cancer cells. Several forms of immunotherapy-based treatment for cancer are already in clinical use, and many others are currently under development as a promising therapeutic to treat patients in the future.

We have broadly categorized the types of immunotherapy into two strategies: cell-based therapy, where cells are directly injected back into patients via stem cell or specific immune cell transplantation, and soluble factor-based therapy, in which patients are treated with soluble factors, such as antibodies and/or other proteins, which boost the patient’s immune system and anti-tumor immunity.

Click on each of these immunotherapy categories below to learn more:

Cell-Based Therapy

Soluble Factor-Based Therapy

Overview

APC Vaccines

CAR-T Cells

Future Perspectives

Non-stem cell transplant cell-based immunotherapy involves isolation of immune cells, in vitro expansion/manipulation to augment anti-tumor immune responses, and transfusion back into the patient (see diagram below). Depending on the context, these cells can either come from the original patient in the case of an autologous transplant, or from a different donor in the case of an allogeneic donor with a matched HLA-type to minimize chances of graft-versus-host disease development in the recipient.

Cell-Based Therapy Scheme

Current clinical use and cell-based immunotherapy research is focused around several immune cell types. This includes the transplantation of anti-tumor T Cells, such as Chimeric Antigen Receptor-carrying T Cells (CAR-T Cells), and cancer antigen-primed antigen presenting cells (APC vaccines). We will discuss these different types of cell-based cancer immunotherapies in the corresponding sections, and future avenues for improving their therapeutic benefit.